Apple - When I got my first Mac upon high school graduation a couple years back (already!), I had no idea I could be obsessed or become so loyal to a company. I know I might sound like just any other Apple fans, and a lot of my friends bash me for using a Mac (and iPhone), but one thing that I learned over and over in the year 2008 was that life is all about the pursuit of happiness and that using Apple products make me happy. Of course, obsession over anything brings toll in daily life: I constantly check back Apple related blogs and websites several times a day, which is very time consuming. But hey, it also brought motivation and excitement in my rather dull life. For one I openly declared that I had to achieve an excellence in my work term evaluation so I get a chance to get into Apple QA center in Ottawa (I heard they reject anything below) to everyone in the department that I was working for this term, and whenever I felt like slacking off, I reminded myself that I couldn’t afford to receive another “very good”. I became ecstatic whenever there was new product announcements. Unlike Nokia (or most of tech companies on the earth) who always spills too much too early (N97, which was supposedly an iPhone killer. The only problem was that it will be available sometimes half way through 2009), Apple kept its mouth shut until the very moment of announcement and then went onto blast my mind away Also I began to appreciate software developers as I picked up Cocoa programming and actually purchased a few applications such as TextMate, CSSEdit, 1Password, and Awaken. Lastly iPhone proved to be so much more than a phone: thanks to GPS, I never got lost this term; I posted pictures online on the go for my family, who is on the other end of the continent, to look at; managed all my personal information including shopping list, contacts list, to-do lists and even updating my blog on the road. I am sure Apple will do just as well amid economy turmoil and hopefully I can return something valuable to the company through one way or another.

University of Waterloo - Personally I think student life at U. of Waterloo sucks. It may be situated at the Silicon Valley of the North, but for a 20-year-old guy who has an attention span of maybe 10 seconds, there is too little things going on. Everywhere I look around, it’s all about studying or trees and geese. Well, it is a good thing perhaps. I can focus on my study and engineering program is tough enough to make me shed tears in frustration at times. Also being around goal-oriented people is always challenging, but I am sure it is all worthwhile experience. However sometimes I think I wish I could be closer to a bigger town like Toronto where I can remind myself that I am still a civilized man. The city of Waterloo is too dry for my liking. And having come from Vancouver, having to move around every 4 months turned about the be really difficult. However, I can say it is also all worthwhile experience. I may be doing something a high school kid can handle on coop terms (for now), but coop experience gave me some real life lessons that changed my view of life and a bit of financial independence from my parents.

Pentax - Although I sold K100D DSLR (a purely idiotic mistake on my part), I still follow this company’s move closely probably because I will buy a DSLR in the coming year and a Pentax is on the very top of my list. With the 50mm prime lens which costs about exactly half the cost of competitors like Nikon and Canon, I learned the joy of photography. Every picture I took meant so much more: my family, my friends, the city that I live in and even the street that I walk by every morning. I began to interact with them in much more personal way, a way that I have never done. I became so much more aware of my surroundings. I used to be so deep into my thought, probably worried over a trivial matter. But through the lens, I opened up to people and shared my feelings. Photography - it means a lot to me now. It is no longer an activity that I got into just because of all the hype, and Pentax really gave me a sixth sense that allowed me to look at the world that I live in, not as a backdrop of myself, but as the center-piece of my life.

RW & Co. - I don’t really care about what I wear. I usually wear jeans and a hoody, but this Canadian clothing brand which caught my attention couple years back has a very unique sense of color and style. I only bought a couple of items from it every year for the past three years, but the more I wear it the more I like about their stuff. I still wear the very first cardigan I bought from them, and it still looks very good. Aside everything, and it’s probably personal tastes, but I think I look heart-breakingly awesome in their stuff (wtf? I know xD ). Except the fact that they only have limited styles for pants, they always have a wide variety of everything and I always wow myself trying them on.

me2Day - me2Day is a Korean web service much like Twitter. I use it much more than I use Twitter because it is still a very small, but growing of course, community so it is easy to share ideas and most of all there is no spam unlike Twitter. The feature that I use the most is sharing the pictures that I took with my iPhone. My mom regularly checks back my page and I think that way is so much more efficient for both of us than talking on the phone. Well, my mom likes to hear what I did today. She also likes to talk about her day too. I am not much of a talker, so I get bored when she talks about how she went to swimming that day. And I usually say one or two sentences about my day, which disappoints her. However after I told her to check my page couple months ago, communicating with my mom became a breeze. She even knows when and where I took my last dump at, and the best part of that is that I didn’t have to tell her about it

RailsPlayground - This is the hosting company that hosts my blog and whatnots. While the Ottawa based company I was with before was really good, it didn’t support Rails. After reading some reviews, I chose this company a while ago to learn Ruby on Rails. I am not sure about how fast their servers are, simply because my sites are really basic. However I know for a fact that their support is the best thing on this planet. As I learn the framework, I run into all sorts of things. Mostly those things are trivial things that I should really ask the Rails community for help. However I file a support ticket to RailsPlayground support anyways because they get back to me in matter of minutes, even on Christmas day and even today, new year’s eve. And they are super helpful and nice. Also they have a chat room where I can talk to a support agent in real time. I used it a couple times and it was really effective. The best hosting company that I ever had!

BigBang - It is a Korean idol group. I don’t usually listen to Korean songs, just because I can’t stand guys acting like girls and girls acting like babies which is very common in Asian culture. BigBang is really different though. They are a very talented group of 5 who don’t act like girls (LOL what a thing to say). Each member can write his own stuff, sing, dance and has unique style. For the past two years I have been morbidly listening to them day and night and it gets better every time I listen to them. They are most known for a song called “lies“, and after listening to it for nearly 3000 times (according to iTunes) I just can’t get enough of it. Their songs have kept me going even in the shittiest mood or situation that I could be in. They empower me and I just can’t look back at the year 2008 without them. I never liked a group this much in my life. In fact I never liked anything so much until a couple years back, probably because I had such a negative view of life. But with the things I mentioned above including this group, I can finally say I am happy. Going to their concert is one thing I must do before I die.

Loblaws - Being a coop student, I get to go to Loblaws a lot. And to me Loblaws is what Toy’s R Us is for kids, and what EB Games is for many of teenagers. I walk into their well-lit stores, walk down the aisle of thousands and thousands of food around the globe, I get this warm-fuzzy feeling that heaven really is on the earth. Nevermind the hot cashiers who kindly put my grocery into plastic bags, Loblaws has all the things I need

Toronto - Alas, all the good things come and go. When I first learned that I got a job in Toronto, I was the happiest man ever lived. I have a fetish for big cities like NYC and from my short visits to Toronto in the past, I knew I was going to fall in love with it. Walking down Queen street on a bright sunny day among the tall buildings and high rises along with people briskly walking by and cars jammed in the traffic, I feel like my pen*s is so much bigger than it actually is. You know, the things I saw there was the very best of ourselves, the product of working human minds, the end result of purposeful individuals who thought of digging the soil and creating a city. Sadly I have to leave this city as my coop term is over. I don’t know if I will be back here. But One day I will own a place that looks over the skyline of Toronto.

Korea - Ok as fucked as this country may be economically, politically and in every other possible way, I can’t say I’ve lost the patriotism. I will continue to follow the news about politicians screwing the country up or some wacko jumping out of the window as he finds university entrance exam way too difficult. After all watching news on this country is like watching a sitcom. It’s pretty damn funny, interesting and sad at the same time. Anyways for whatever reason I may have in mind, one thing is clear: I want it to do well. I want the economy gets better so the land that my dad owns get more valuable. I want the education system become fair for every living child in the country so it can be the basis in building more companies like Hyundai and Samsung. I also wish by some miracle the president MB decides to quit his job.

Ayn Rand - I read the Fountainhead 3 times in the past. And I’ve been reading the Atlas Shrugged for the past 11 months, and I am only half way through. Well, it doesn’t mean I am lazy (LOL). It’s a proof of the fact that I had a busy year. Anyhow, I must acknowledge that her works have inspired me through out the year still. She talks of objectivism, selfishness, and men with purpose and reason. Of course, it’s an ideal that is not reachable, but it held me together at difficult times and may be that’s why I am holding on to the book so long.